Going Green Together: How to Align Employees with Green Strategies

Going Green Together

How to Align Employees with

Green Strategies

By Frank Röttgers

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 by Frank Röttgers

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken, the author assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN: 978-3-00-033323-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010916613

Edition 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

1.2 Purpose and Nature of the Research Project

1.3 Contents of the Research Project

1.4 Overall Research Objective

CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Green Strategy Defined

2.3 The Challenges of Implementing Strategies

2.4 Approaching Knowing-Doing Gaps

2.5 Employee Alignment and Strategy Implementation

2.6 Employee Strategic Alignment Defined

2.7 Reaching Employee Strategic Alignment

2.8 Limitations to Employee Strategic Alignment

2.9 Conclusion

2.10 Research Questions

CHAPTER THREE – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Research Philosophy

3.3 Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research Methodology

3.4 Rationale for Qualitative Research Methodology

3.5 Limitations to Qualitative Research

3.6 Research Design

3.7 Sampling

3.8 Analysis of the Research

3.9 Conclusion

CHAPTER FOUR – FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Electricity Company and Interviewee Backgrounds

4.3 Research Findings

4.4 Research Analysis

4.5 Conclusion

CHAPTER FIVE – CONCLUSION

5.1 Conclusion and Discussion

5.2 Research Limitations

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks go to James Curran for organising the interviews, and my brother Dirk for always being at hand with help and advice. I am also grateful to the strategic management lunch council for all its support and would like to thank Brian Gallagher and Trevor Woodhouse in particular for their contributions.

ABSTRACT

At a time when ‘going green’ is at the top of the agenda of many organisations one of the most critical success factors of strategy implementation escapes the notice of many theorists and practitioners. As employees are considered the linchpin of organisations’ strategic operational success, the objective of this thesis is to determine the impact of employee strategic alignment on green strategy implementation. Moreover, this thesis aims at providing theorists and practitioners with insights into how to align employees with green strategies to facilitate a flawless realisation of organisations’ environmental goals. Comparing the gained primary data to the existing literature allows the development of an empirically and theoretically grounded argument stating that employee strategic alignment is vital for a successful green strategy implementation. Despite the finding that organisations with an environmental focus have the advantage that a large number of employees automatically commit to their green strategies due to personal identification with the underlying goals, their endeavours to align the remaining employees is crucial to the overall success of the strategy. By cultivating a green framework, organisations are able to increase the amount of strategically aligned employees, embed green thinking in daily routines, and induce a more action-related behaviour towards the implementation of a green strategy. To deliver the essential cornerstones for this framework, practitioners need to create an open and forgiving company culture, extensively communicate their intentions, unveil a proactive leadership style, and offer the right incentives. Thereby, organisations determine the make or break of their environmental objectives and lay the foundation for a sustainable competitive advantage.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

‘Going green’ has evolved into a common catchphrase across today’s business landscape while strategic managers discuss best practices for formulating and implementing green strategies vigorously as never before (Sturdivant 2008). The reasons for the topicality of companies going green and the ongoing discussions about the right way to approach it are manifold. Whereas some organisations go green in order to be compliant with governmental regulations or feel responsible towards the continued existence of the planet and their corporate social responsibility activities, other organisations go green in order to decrease cost, increase their profitability, and thereby gain a competitive advantage (Nidumolu et al. 2009; Wilson 2008). Two widely known facts, which receive much attention in today’s business world, lie behind this green wave: the limits of the natural world and the growing concern of stakeholders about the environment (Esty and Winston 2009). While issues such as global warming, resource constraints, loss of biodiversity, and water scarcity constrain business operations, threaten the planet’s well-being, and lead to a realignment of markets, a vast majority of stakeholders insists that organisations pay attention to these issues.

Especially governments, customers, and employees do not longer turn a blind eye on environmental unfriendly business practices and call for action when it comes to turning organisations’ operations green (Esty and Winston 2009). Organisations that ignore these aspects neglect the fact that a growing green economy is emerging in the first decade of the twenty-first century. This new decade addresses the world’s environmental challenges while creating new opportunities for those companies that outperform the wasteful and polluting production and business processes of their competition by implementing environmentally friendly and cleaner business models and strategies (Makower 2008). Indeed, almost every Fortune 500 company today has recognised the demand for green strategies not just as a defence mechanism to retain legitimacy and the right to operate, but as core of their mission and reason for being (Marcus and Fremeth 2009). Realising that the creation of business value and improvements in operations and reputation are often related to the staff’s alignment with the organisation’s green strategy and everyone’s involvement in the organisation’s mission, employees play a major role in the emerging green economy of this century.

1.2 Purpose and Nature of the Research Project

Strategies for going green and the role of employees in implementing those strategies have become a relevant area of academic research and in day-to-day business life (Kotler and Lee 2005; Esty and Winston 2009). However, while many authors and practitioners write about and concern themselves with why and how to formulate green strategies, very little research exists on how a successful implementation of a green strategy can be attained and what impact employees have on putting a theoretically formulated strategy into practice. The purpose and nature of this research project is therefore of two kinds: to complement existing academic research on the one hand and to provide practitioners and professionals with new insights on the other. In more detail, this research project is of relevance to academic researchers because it complements existing research on strategies dedicated to turn organisations green by taking a closer look at the role of employees on the successful implementation of green strategies. Furthermore, it complements existing theories on knowing-doing gaps and performance paradoxes within organisations. In order to do so, it considers whether the existing theory of general business strategies is also applicable to green strategies and delivers new data on employee strategic alignment with respect to green strategies by conducting primary research in one of the world’s largest electricity companies.

In a marketplace where competitive differentiation is hard to gain, green strategies and an environmental advantage also become a larger